Re: Contributing to autoconf, automake, etc...

[Ben Bergen]

Paul,

the cell does use C and C++ compilers.  However, programs for the
different "sub-processors", i.e., the PPE and the SPEs (the PPE is the
single PowerPC processor, and the SPEs are the 8 synergistic
processing elements), must be compiled using separate compilers.
Additionally, the SPE program must be embedded into the PPE executable
as something like a library.  I would like to automate all of this
somehow.  My initial idea was to create new suffixes for the PPE and
SPE sources, e.g., .pc and .sc for C source files, and add support to
the autotools to support these file types.  I do not want to do
something that interferes with the normal C/C++/Fortran compilers, as
we also need these for what we are trying to do.  Ideally, we would
like to have a C/C++ program that is compiled normally for a host
system (this is why I need the normal C/C++ stuff) that then links
with a PowerPC program that is cross-compiled for the PPE/SPEs.
Perhaps there is a better way to accomplish this.  I will put together
a simple make file that does what I need by brute force so that you
will have a better idea of what I am facing.  Currently, I can only
provide something that compiles a PPE program with an embedded SPE
program.  I am also interested in coming up with a general approach
for heterogeneous systems that compile and link with more than one
compiler.

Ben

--
  Benjamin Karl Bergen
  CCS-2 Continuum Dynamics
  Los Alamos National Laboratory